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Mac OS X is built upon Darwin which in turn is buildt upon BSD which is open source.

The most significant diffrence between linux distros such as Red Hat or Mandrake and OS X is Aqua, the window manager used by Mac OS X. Now you can cut Aqua out of Mac OS X and use OS X as a clean Linux-installation if you want to.
From what I understand, all OS X is is a BSD-distro specialized for the Mac plattform and Apples (kickass) window manager.

Both of them are Unix base and which is better?

I belive this is a personal choice, but Mac OS X runs on the Mac platform, Most Linux distros runs on the PC platform.

If you are looking for a Linux distro similar to Mac OS X I think you should go for RedHat or Mandrake since these are some of the most Newbie/User friendly distros. The Aqua window manager is, as far as I know not available for Linux as Apple is pretty keen on keeping the source code out of the public eye.

.sig - There never was a .sig?
I own a Schneider EuroPC with MS-Dos 3.3 and it works.

mac and linux can't be compared. That is like saying how is an apple compared to a banana tree. Mac is an entire platform (software and hardware, ie the banana tree). Linux is just an operating system (not hardware, ie the apple).

now if you are talking about the Operating systems...
OS X is the Aqua interface (gui) running on Darwin
Darwin is a BSD platform with the Mach Kernel
It is customized for Motorola processors (although this may be chaning in the next year depending on what happens when the G4 is replaced).

Linux is an x server (normally Xfree86) running on Linux with the Linux kernal. That is, if you are running a gui.

Both OS are simillar in that they are both *nix bassed under the hood, but BSD and Linux are not the same (nor is Unix for that matter) There are quite a few differences. You can get Linux for the mac hardware also. Yellow dog is most popular, but also gentoo, mandrake, and a couple others have been ported.

This is really a mess cause i am sleepy and i have a headache. But there are many many differences once you get into the internals of the system. A normal person sitting down at a console window may not be able to tell the difference, but if you understand proccess managment, timing, job control, etc, you will see many differences.

Mac OS X is Apple's latest UNIX based desktop OS, in the past they have also had A/AU, NeXT/OpenSTEP, Rhapsody and probably one or two other UNIX/UNIX-based OS's.

The thing that makes Mac OS X quite special (as others have mentioned) is the Open Source aspect of it. This is probably the first time in Apples history that they have openly accepted and encouraged OSS development and mind-share for one of their products. In my personal opinion, this is probably due to a wise observation about the quality and achievements made in Open Source software over the past several years.

As for the UNIX-ish-ness of Mac OS X, it is there largely, but many hardcore UNIX people find themsleves relearning a lot of the implementation-specific basics all the same.

I am a big fan of both, and currently only a user of MacOS X (but only because my BSD box fizzled ), and you
can tell the difference between Darwin and BSD quite quickly. They feel completely different. Though both of configs in /etc Darwin mostly only uses them for Single-User Mode, when you boot normally it gets most configs from something called NetInfo... I have no idea what is so good about this that Apple decided to keep it, I am pretty sure that it would allow for a constistent network of machines as it is something like a configuration server and somewhat like an authentication server, and somewhat like a big ball of scariness. I understand the principles of most of the config files in /etc, NetInfo on the other hand currently confuses me. Adding a user through the command line involves a strange bit of keyboard voodoo, which leads me to assume that pretty much everything you have to do with NetInfo is going to be a lot more difficult than it would be to do the same task on *nix.

So yah, they may have a lot in common, but once you start using them at any level of admin-type activity, you start noticing big differences.

Dhej

The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk. -Hegel

So guys and gals,what is your conclusion between a Linux and Mac of which is better?I know zero about Mac but i find Linux still the best compare with Window.So compare Mac and Linux,which one is really good.I know Mac is meant more for graphic design rather being a server,while Linux is widely use an a server.Correct me if i am wrong.

I suppose that which is *best* depends largely on what you want to do with the system. If you are heavy into
graphics and want access to all the kewlest (and expensive) multimedia software then Mac OS X is your bag. If you want an OS that can be configured in almost any concievable manner (i.e. Server, Workstation, Hacking box, Coding, Firewall,
etc., etc. ) not too mention on most widely available platforms, then Linux may be your bag.

Note: I should mention that Linux is gaining ground quickly in the movie/3D animation industry both as a rendering platform
and a 3D modeling platform. Maya has been available for Linux since version 3.x ( I think ). Also, if you have the cash, and want a very serious 3D imaging system, then you should probably skip both Mac OS X and Linux (for now ) and head straight for an SGI Fuel system running IRIX 6.5.19/20 imho.